California fires: Searchers seek hundreds of missing

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In some areas in Sonoma County, the wildfires that have ravaged tens of thousands of acres died down enough Wednesday for the sheriff's department to check on more than 600 missing persons reports by visiting burned-out neighborhoods, CNN reports.

In many other cases, detectives used telephones to track down people who are unaccounted for.

Still, 285 people remain missing in just this one county, people who authorities pray are still alive but have no way to contact police or their loved ones.

But there is some dread that the death toll -- 23 in the region -- from the Northern California wildfires will rise as more areas cool down and searchers discover what's left.

"I'm optimistic that we will get a lot of people connected," Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano said. "At the same time we have to be realistic and start searching for the ones we found are missing."